A man and a boy walk at a shopping center in Beijing, China December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

BEIJING (Reuters) - Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China worsened in the fourth quarter compared with the previous one, and was at the lowest since the second quarter of 2017, according to a survey by the People’s Bank of China published on Monday.

The entrepreneurs’ confidence index dropped to 67.8 percent in the fourth quarter, 3.4 percentage points lower than in the third quarter, the central bank survey showed.

A separate PBOC survey of urban households showed a decline in the number of respondents believing housing prices will continue to rise in the next quarter. It found that 27.4 percent expect a price increase, down from 33.7 percent in the survey done three months ago.